Cost for a 30-Day Stay at the Inflatable Space Hotel: $25 Million

[Rev. Dr. Rick]

Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas company backed by an eccentric billionaire, is determined to establish a private 36-person space station in earth's orbit by 2016.

transhab-cutaway.jpg Humans may or may not eventually live in space permanently, but there’s no doubt that in the coming years we’ll be hanging out up there a lot more frequently.

As reported in The New York Times this week, Las Vegas startup Bigelow Aerospace currently operates a pair of space stations capable of accommodating tourists. They are right now orbiting the earth.

The two inflatable capsules, launched in 2006 and 2007, are just test modules. But by 2015, Bigelow aims to have a fully operational space hotel in orbit. A year later, a multi-module complex will be capable of carrying 36 passengers – six times the capacity of the International Space Station.

$25 million 30-day space vacations are now for sale. Nevermind that there’s not currently a rocket in production that can take you to Bigelow’s planned space station. Boeing is working on one and President Obama’s plan to invest $6 billion in private space enterprise in 2011 promises to make the private space industry a viable one. Playing with ant farms in zero-gravity is going to happen, and this time, if Bigelow has its way, it’ll be $10 million cheaper than Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte paid in 2009 for a 12 day stay at the ISS.

Don’t expect it to be any more luxurious. Bigelow’s spartan design, which is based on a canceled NASA program, is constricted by the physical demands of spaceflight. To better fit on rockets, the modules expand once in orbit to a maximum volume of 11,700 cubit feet, just larger than a standard school bus — not quite large enough to accommodate 3-D laser tag. And because of the threat of micrometeroids, Bigelow's modules are fitted with only a couple small windows. High-Def big screen space spas are still a long way off.

Not that Robert T. Bigelow, the company’s founder, much cares. The reclusive entrepreneur, who made most of his fortune from southwest hotel chain Budget Suites of America, has his sights set way beyond delivering laid back vacations to wealthy civilians. Bigelow, who once founded a multi-million dollar, now defunct paranormal research organization, wants to explore space.

“I’ve been a researcher and student of U.F.O.’s for many, many years,” Bigelow, tells The Times in a rare interview. “Anybody that does research, if people bother to do quality research, come away absolutely convinced. You don’t have to have personal encounters,” he says of U.F.O.’s.

Clearly, that won't stop him from trying.